NSD

Plugin: go.d.plugin Module: nsd

Overview

This collector monitors NSD statistics like queries, zones, protocols, query types and more. It relies on the nsd-control CLI tool but avoids directly executing the binary. Instead, it utilizes ndsudo, a Netdata helper specifically designed to run privileged commands securely within the Netdata environment. This approach eliminates the need to use sudo, improving security and potentially simplifying permission management. Executed commands:

• nsd-control stats_noreset

This collector is only supported on the following platforms:

• Linux
• BSD
• macOS

This collector only supports collecting metrics from a single instance of this integration.

Default Behavior

Auto-Detection

This integration doesn't support auto-detection.

Limits

The default configuration for this integration does not impose any limits on data collection.

Performance Impact

The default configuration for this integration is not expected to impose a significant performance impact on the system.

Metrics

Metrics grouped by scope.

The scope defines the instance that the metric belongs to. An instance is uniquely identified by a set of labels.

Per NSD instance

These metrics refer to the the entire monitored application.

This scope has no labels.

Metrics:

Metric	Dimensions	Unit
nsd.queries	queries	queries/s
nsd.queries_by_type	A, NS, MD, MF, CNAME, SOA, MB, MG, MR, NULL, WKS, PTR, HINFO, MINFO, MX, TXT, RP, AFSDB, X25, ISDN, RT, NSAP, SIG, KEY, PX, AAAA, LOC, NXT, SRV, NAPTR, KX, CERT, DNAME, OPT, APL, DS, SSHFP, IPSECKEY, RRSIG, NSEC, DNSKEY, DHCID, NSEC3, NSEC3PARAM, TLSA, SMIMEA, CDS, CDNSKEY, OPENPGPKEY, CSYNC, ZONEMD, SVCB, HTTPS, SPF, NID, L32, L64, LP, EUI48, EUI64, URI, CAA, AVC, DLV, IXFR, AXFR, MAILB, MAILA, ANY	queries/s
nsd.queries_by_opcode	QUERY, IQUERY, STATUS, NOTIFY, UPDATE, OTHER	queries/s
nsd.queries_by_class	IN, CS, CH, HS	queries/s
nsd.queries_by_protocol	udp, udp6, tcp, tcp6, tls, tls6	queries/s
nsd.answers_by_rcode	NOERROR, FORMERR, SERVFAIL, NXDOMAIN, NOTIMP, REFUSED, YXDOMAIN, YXRRSET, NXRRSET, NOTAUTH, NOTZONE, RCODE11, RCODE12, RCODE13, RCODE14, RCODE15, BADVERS	answers/s
nsd.errors	query, answer	errors/s
nsd.drops	query	drops/s
nsd.zones	master, slave	zones
nsd.zone_transfers_requests	AXFR, IXFR	requests/s
nsd.zone_transfer_memory	used	bytes
nsd.database_size	disk, mem	bytes
nsd.uptime	uptime	seconds

Alerts

There are no alerts configured by default for this integration.

Setup

You can configure the nsd collector in two ways:

Method	Best for	How to
UI	Fast setup without editing files	Go to Nodes → Configure this node → Collectors → Jobs, search for nsd, then click + to add a job.
File	If you prefer configuring via file, or need to automate deployments (e.g., with Ansible)	Edit go.d/nsd.conf and add a job.

important

UI configuration requires paid Netdata Cloud plan.

Prerequisites

No action required.

Configuration

Options

The following options can be defined globally: update_every.

Config options

Option	Description	Default	Required
update_every	Data collection frequency.	10	no
timeout	nsd-control binary execution timeout.	2	no

via UI

Configure the nsd collector from the Netdata web interface:

1. Go to Nodes.
2. Select the node where you want the nsd data-collection job to run and click the ⚙ (Configure this node). That node will run the data collection.
3. The Collectors → Jobs view opens by default.
4. In the Search box, type nsd (or scroll the list) to locate the nsd collector.
5. Click the + next to the nsd collector to add a new job.
6. Fill in the job fields, then click Test to verify the configuration and Submit to save.
   • Test runs the job with the provided settings and shows whether data can be collected.
   • If it fails, an error message appears with details (for example, connection refused, timeout, or command execution errors), so you can adjust and retest.

via File

The configuration file name for this integration is go.d/nsd.conf.

The file format is YAML. Generally, the structure is:

update_every: 1
autodetection_retry: 0
jobs:
  - name: some_name1
  - name: some_name2

You can edit the configuration file using the edit-config script from the Netdata config directory.

cd /etc/netdata 2>/dev/null || cd /opt/netdata/etc/netdata
sudo ./edit-config go.d/nsd.conf

Examples

Custom update_every

Allows you to override the default data collection interval.

Config

jobs:
  - name: nsd
    update_every: 5  # Collect logical volume statistics every 5 seconds

Troubleshooting

Debug Mode

Important: Debug mode is not supported for data collection jobs created via the UI using the Dyncfg feature.

To troubleshoot issues with the nsd collector, run the go.d.plugin with the debug option enabled. The output should give you clues as to why the collector isn't working.

• Navigate to the plugins.d directory, usually at /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/. If that's not the case on your system, open netdata.conf and look for the plugins setting under [directories].

  cd /usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/

• Switch to the netdata user.

  sudo -u netdata -s

• Run the go.d.plugin to debug the collector:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m nsd

  To debug a specific job:

  ./go.d.plugin -d -m nsd -j jobName

Getting Logs

If you're encountering problems with the nsd collector, follow these steps to retrieve logs and identify potential issues:

• Run the command specific to your system (systemd, non-systemd, or Docker container).
• Examine the output for any warnings or error messages that might indicate issues. These messages should provide clues about the root cause of the problem.

System with systemd

Use the following command to view logs generated since the last Netdata service restart:

journalctl _SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID="$(systemctl show --value --property=InvocationID netdata)" --namespace=netdata --grep nsd

System without systemd

Locate the collector log file, typically at /var/log/netdata/collector.log, and use grep to filter for collector's name:

grep nsd /var/log/netdata/collector.log

Note: This method shows logs from all restarts. Focus on the latest entries for troubleshooting current issues.

Docker Container

If your Netdata runs in a Docker container named "netdata" (replace if different), use this command:

docker logs netdata 2>&1 | grep nsd